h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are a special category of present, where the recipient loves it, but their partner doesn't and either has to endure it, or find some way to ignore it, even though it might face them every day on the lawn/on the wall/on themselves. I wonder how many lovely jumpers have become ruined 'in the wash', and how many garden gnomes have unexpectedly suffered 'frost damage' on a July evening?

Poor garden gnomes. They need a protection society.

Mu Beta, I have exactly the tea infuser that would work for that, too. Brilliant suggestion! Never would have thought of that myself. I needed another one like the one I got this Christmas because my husband used my old one to catch a kidney stone to bring to his urologist, and I could never bring myself to use it for tea again.


That clock sounds hilarious. I almost envy people who receive gifts *that* dreadful.

I got a moon cake from a student once. Do I mean a mooncake? Some kind of utterly disgusting Chinese foodstuff that is a little bit like a cross between a scotch egg and a pork pie. I thought it was sweet. Gaaaaahpppppthpewpepepepew.

I fed it to my son.

I've regifted, but I feel guilty for doing so even if said gift is something I would never ever use. Mind you, I pride myself on picking good gifts for others so afaik nobody has ever regifted anything I have regifted to them

A slight detour of topic here -- how many of us have received "pointed" gifts, as in "hint, hint..."?

We had one of my husbands family who kept giving us "hostess" gifts, every year, even though we lived in the equivalent of a large walk-in closet at the time. I would've loved to have everyone over for gumbo, using the 12 quart stockpot we got one year, but I'd have had to seat them all on the steps outside...and after we had them over, those gifts stopped.

Maybe all these clothes I'm receiving in too small sizes are a hint? I'm willing to bet that the reason I receive clothes in colors I never wear is a misguided effort to get me to wear colors other than black. Friends and relatives used to offer that explanation when I was younger, so it's not all that unlikely people are doing it now.

One year my in-laws gave me a few very pointed "hint, hint" gifts for Christmas. When asked what I wanted, I requested a new rolling pin to replace mine, which had been damaged so I couldn't use it anymore. My MIL bakes a lot of cookies and I knew she'd pick a really nice one. Along with the rolling pin, I received a set of mixing bowls (which was actually great, even though I already had a set, as they were in different sizes from the ones I had), two ceramic pie plates, and a big plastic rolling mat. Our towel calendar that year had all kinds of fruit on it. Now every time we visit them, we come bearing a freshly baked rhubarb pie.

For my birthday in 2010, my workmates got me cans of bitter, chocolate cake, and a voucher for PS3 games. In 2011, my workmates (including many of the same people) got me shirts, socks, Lynx toileteries and cans of Stella Artois.
I find it curious that, in the course of the year, they appear to have forgotten everything they knew about me, stopped listening to anything I say, and lost all intuition as to the kind of person I am.